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Heat mechanics
There are some laws related to heat in Reactor Incremental. Heat management is a primal aspect of Reactor Incremental, since it must be vented to keep the player's activity safe. Like in any RL nuclear reactor, heat and atomic activity must be regulated and kept within bounds to prevent a nuclear meltdown. The principles of managing heat in Reactor Incremental are explained below : Heat Generation Heat is generated by power cells, to an extent which corresponds to the base heat level for the cell's tier and the number of pulses it gets from itself and surrounding cells, if any. Power cells generate a certain amount of heat per tick. This amount of heat must be dealt with before it's accumulation exceeds the amount of heat the reactor can take ; this amount is shown on the top-left bar. Heat Dissipation Cells do not store heat themselves. Each tick, the heat generated from cells will: * Dissipate equally to adjacent heat-accepting components, such as vents, heat exchangers and coolant cells. Capacitors also accept heat, but do not have any ability to handle it, having very low capacity (10 heat), they would explode almost immediately as a result. Ventilation Heat must be vented away. The vent is the only element that can automatically reduce heat on its own, and as such is the primary tool for heat management. There are two ways to use vents: * You can use the vents directly, by placing them right next to the cells. Heat will be divided and dissipated according to the heat dissipation section above. This method is recommended for direct heat management, as it will never reach the reactor and therefore eliminate the need for heat exchangers. * You can also pick up the heat using heat inlets, which will take the heat from the cells. Then, place the vents next to outlets. The vent will cool itself down appropriately. This is useful on tricky surfaces (3x3 placement, etc.) or to pool heat from many sources in one small zone. This method is obviously less effective and the reactor must be able to withstand the heat transfer process, but it is more flexible to set up especially for trying high-tier cells. * If no such components are present, all heat will go directly into the reactor. Heat Exchange Heat can be exchanged between adjacent components by heat exchangers. Each heat exchanger has a rated amount that it can transfer from/to the reactor and (feature removed as of 2015/01/30's patch) between adjacent components. They do, however, accept much more heat than vents at a time, which makes them valuable on massive cell farms. Heat inlets allow players to vent heat into the reactor, while outlets take heat out from the reactor into adjacent components. These two devices allow the player to use the reactor as a transfer gauge for heat, between two distinct zones of the reactor. Useful for saving up money (or room) on vents & exchangers. Reactor Heat The reactor has by itself a pool of heat capacity (1000 heat at start) that can be extended by plating and/or upgrades. Through the use of inlets/outlets, this capacity pool can be used for temporary heat logistics, although this process is very risky. Leaving the game running unattended for even a few seconds with this can lead to a meltdown. Once this capacity is exceeded (> 100%), the reactor will start repelling 5% of the excess back into the components. The capacitors will be the first to go off because they can only hold 10 heat. Once the capacity is doubled (> 200%), the reactor melts down, destroying everything inside. It is recommended that you save high-value components by pausing (space) and mass-selling cells (shift-right click) before this happens. Coolant Cells Coolant cells can take the heat off adjacent cells and into itself. They have a very large capacity. You can use them in two ways: * Use it as a buffer, by placing it next to a cell and a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger (tries to) balances out the coolant's heat, so it can be vented away. * Use it as an expendable unit. You can wait until the coolant cell fills up and replace it yourself. Note that coolant cells will never output heat on its own. You need an exchanger or an inlet to extract heat from it.